Monday, June 30, 2008

To explain... I signed up for a brief garde manger class at the community college. Most of my classmates are budding wanna-be chefs; I am the oldest person in the class and apparently the only one taking it strictly for my own amusement.

(Garde manger is fancy foodie-talk for cold food; salads, appetizers, that sort of thing. No, I never knew that until I signed up for this class.)

Last week we learned how to roll sushi. The chef/professor said spam sushi was surprisingly good--and he was right. I don't do seafood in any form, raw or cooked, so I went for the spam, which the chef fried up for our use in a process that involved a lot of uninvited fire. He nearly burned down the kitchen.... In all the excitement I forgot to ask him what he fried it in; but I believe if I do it myself at home, I'll use sesame oil. Good stuff.

My sushi included also cucumber, carrots and avocado slivers--and it's rolled in colorful soy covers instead of that seaweed stuff. Okay, they were a little lopsided... but not bad for a very first attempt ever, and they tasted pretty good.

I do not take credit for the fancy little vegetable garnishes; those were made by our youngest classmate, who is only 13 but loves to cook.

You can look here if you want to see some of the other classroom creations, as well as a picture of our 13 year old budding chef with her own sushi platter.

Tomorrow afternoon is the last class, and I expect I'll be posting a few more pictures then.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

My poor little gecko. In the last couple of weeks, after I mist down her cage at night, she has started attacking the water droplets that run down the walls. She must think they're prey, because she dives right into the glass and bonks her poor little snout. And all she gets for her trouble is a drop of water. Explaining that if she wants water she can get it from her fountain without smacking herself in the face is useless, since she pretends not to understand English.